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It tells you how much capacity is left in the battery. I think it's the least precise but also the most accurate method of seeing how much capacity the battery has. I guess it's good for determining the capacity if the PowerBook isn't on, or if you want to see how much juice a spare battery has on its own.

So it doesn't drain the battery constantly by having the lights on? Yeah, they don't take up very much energy, but if they're lit constantly for a few years, they might reduce the battery's capacity a small amount.

there are four green LEDs. Each one probably draws 7mA at 3.7V nominal, which is the rated volatage of a single LiIon cell. I imagine that there's also a little A2D converter chip in there, perhaps in the form of a tiny microcontroller (a small processor). I'd probably do it with a very small 8bit microcontroller and a switch chip.

Anyway, that's like 30mA at 3.7V to light all four LEDs. 30mA @ 3.7V is more than enough power to run the newest 802.11 chips in standby mode. (i.e. when they're not transmitting or receiving). If that's .1W and your PB has a 60Wh battery, it could power the lights alone for 600hours. So it's wise to keep them off when you can even though it's just a tiny bit of power.

there are four green LEDs. Each one probably draws 7mA at 3.7V nominal, which is the rated volatage of a single LiIon cell. I imagine that there's also a little A2D converter chip in there, perhaps in the form of a tiny microcontroller (a small processor). I'd probably do it with a very small 8bit microcontroller and a switch chip.

Anyway, that's like 30mA at 3.7V to light all four LEDs. 30mA @ 3.7V is more than enough power to run the newest 802.11 chips in standby mode. (i.e. when they're not transmitting or receiving). If that's .1W and your PB has a 60Wh battery, it could power the lights alone for 600hours. So it's wise to keep them off when you can even though it's just a tiny bit of power.

For the record, this powerbook is the first laptop* I've ever had, it's also the first laptop I've used extensively(we always had a tower at home, or iMacs) so, as far as laptops go, I am only 4 months old.

The only reason I knew was because a friend showed me it specifically a while back (this was when I owned a PC notebook; was envious...). Another one of the Apple touches, very useful when you have more than one battery.

Are Apple portables laptops or notebooks? I'm thinking more laptop; notebooks being the ones with desktop processors in, e.g. P4's. Or perhaps they're more deskbooks, Apple-sized being notebooks (in here including PCs with mobile chips), and the really thin, low-powered things being laptops... I dunno.

For the record, this powerbook is the first laptop* I've ever had, it's also the first laptop I've used extensively(we always had a tower at home, or iMacs) so, as far as laptops go, I am only 4 months old.

Not that this will add something in the discussion, but the info you was looking for is already in your Powerbook's manual .

Ah, the good old days when we all used paper. No need to worry about whether you had enough battery life left, or worrying about accidentally dropping the machine (paper bounces), or technical glitches - and the only virii you could get affected just you, not your work. Wait, I've spent too much time with PCs. Macs cope with half of that... :S

Apart for the mention of a battery, I think this post counts as off topic. *goes to wake up*